To Kill A Mocking Bird
by Sinopa
Summary: S.3. Sydney and Vaughn are sent after the "Mocking Bird," hidden in the Cliffs of Moher, Western Ireland. Sydney is still trying to find out what happened to her in her missing two years, and no one knows that there is a mole in the CIA. The "Mocking Bird
1. Chapter One

**_Alias_**: _To Kill A Mocking Bird_

**_Disclaimer_**: _I do not own, or claim to own, the show Alias, or any of its characters. Nor do I own the song "Wonder" By Megan McCauley, which can be found on the Elektra Soundtrack._

**_Summery: _**Vaughn and Sydney have a mission, of course. Based in the third season, before you find out that Lauren is the mole. Syd, and Vaughn are sent after the "Mocking Bird" a device that holds significance to the Covenant, as well as the prophecy. Sydney is still trying to get used to not knowing everything that happened the past two years, and Vaughn's wife. The song "Wonder" reminds me of Sydney and Vaughn and it inspired this story.

**_Wonder:_**

Song by, Megan McCauley

Midnight workings, weather down the storyline  
I try to find the truth between all the lies  
When Bleeding is feeling and feeling ain't real  
Will I see you when I open my eyes?  
Will I see you when I open my eyes?

When Breathing's a burden we all have to bear  
And trust is one thing we're taught never to share  
Somehow you just seem to shine  
When loving means breaking and saying goodbye

(Chorus)  
And I can't help but wonder what it is you do  
You help heal the pain, and the thoughts of the truth  
You're a question to the universe, a wonder to the world  
And somehow, when I'm with you, I never get burned

Caught in a trap of what we're taught to believe  
When night overcomes day, life's so hard to perceive  
And the clock keeps on ticking through night-shattered skies  
Where the stars are all broken, and so are all the ties  
But the one thing remaining is you  
When I'm broken and bleeding, you pull me right through

And I can't help but wonder what it is you do  
When you help heal the pain, and the thoughts of the truth  
You're a question to the universe, a wonder to the world  
And somehow, when I'm with you there's nothing I'd rather do  
Than be right there  
To escape my own life and all my fear  
And I cant feel  
Am I really real?

Come and wipe all my tears  
Come and wipe all my tears

And I can't help but wonder what it is you do  
You help heal the pain, and the thoughts of the truth  
You're a question to the universe, a wonder to the world  
And somehow, when I'm with you...  
I can't help but wonder what it is you do  
You help heal the pain, and the thoughts of the truth  
You're a question to the universe, a wonder to the world  
And somehow, when I'm with you, I never get burned

_**Chapter I:**_

Sydney looked around the table, at the faces that surrounded her. Vaughn had come back to work for the CIA, the two things he had told her before his return echoed in her mind.

"_Before you tell me it's okay that I come back, you need to know two things. One: I loved you so much, it almost killed me. And two: I do not regret moving on with my life." _

Lauren sat comfortably next to her husband; their hands were above the table in a professional manner. Vaughn looked a little worn at the edges, his face was tight, and stress lines were visible at his forehead. Weiss also had his eyes focused on his best friend, a look of concern on his face. Jack looked uncomfortable, closed up as always. Her father never really let anyone past that wall to how he was feeling. She blamed her mother for that. She knew he had emotions though; love and protection were just two that she felt strongly from her father.

"Vaughn and Sydney, you're to go on a mission to retrieve the Mocking Bird. It's a Rambaldi artifact that the Covenant is after, and the CIA wants it first. The Mocking Bird is said to be a voice recorder. We don't know whose voice, or what it says. Just that is has to do with the Prophecy and it could help with your memory Sydney, we don't know. Marshall." Dixon addressed Marshall for the rest of the mission's objectives.

"Well, we think we found the device. It's a rough scale climb, off the cliffs of Moher, western Ireland. There seems to be a cave 350 feet down. And rather well hidden. Has anyone ever been to Ireland here before?" Marshall looked hopefully around the room; exasperated faces looked up at him from swivel chairs. "No? Well. I enjoyed it, there are these-"

"Marshall." Dixon ground out.

"Right, sorry. Anyway, the cave, despite the fact that no one has been in it since Rambaldi's time, the security measures are rather advanced."

"Can you get us through?" Sydney was the first to ask the question, but Vaughn had been thinking the same. Marshall laughed.

"It's advanced, for it's time, so it's still not the hardest thing I've had to work with." Marshall's voice was rightfully proud.

"How long will it take?" Dixon questioned, removing his eyes from the case file.

"Tops?" Marshall paused to think out the possible difficulties. "One hour."

"Alright. Weiss, you're on surveillance. They're going to be vulnerable scaling down that cliff, and you're going to have to watch their back. Lauren-"Dickson looked to Lauren.

"I'm still on an investigation for NSC." The answer came in a very feminine, and British, clipped tone.

"That's fine. Sydney, Weiss, and Vaughn, you leave in two hours. Jack, I'd like a word with you."

Jack and Dixon were left in the office, talking in quiet whispers, as the rest of the agents made their way out. Sydney took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. She would go home and pack, then make her way to the airport with Weiss. Maybe she would take a bottle of Advil with her; she could almost sense the migraine that would be joining her head shortly.

Sydney closed the curtain in the back of the van that separated the driver and the computer desk from where she would be changing into her gear. The flight had been quiet, uncomfortable, and had felt much longer that it should have. She slipped into the black jumpsuit, and then pulled the shoulder length dark hair back into an elastic band; clipping the shorter pieces back with the always useful bobby-pin to keep it out of her eyes.

"So, you're going to be like Indian Jones?" Weiss's voice held a strong sense of amusement, something that had almost helped the trip to Ireland seem less burdensome. Sydney opened the curtain again, stepped up to her seat at the computer desk. Close to Vaughn. "Something to that extent." Vaughn's gaze didn't leave the computer screen. "Marshall said it wasn't so much technology that was needed, but fast reflexes. He said the security system consisted of trapped footing, and he gave us a scanner to locate the stones we shouldn't step on. The only real technology in the cave is a motion detecting system, he can give us ten minuets before the sensors detect us and then the cave will start to close and a poisonous gas, which works as an acid, will be emitted. It burns from the inside out. If we don't get out before the ten minuets we'll have thirty seconds before the cave is actually locked up. Just in case, we have two masks. They won't do much good though if we can't get out of there with in three hours, the gas works as a virus and evolves. It eats through plastic, rubber, cloth, skin." He finally looked over at Sydney, green meeting a light brown colour. They both knew each other enough to know the other was hurting, but they weren't in the position to help the other.

Feeling the emotions bubbling in the vehicle, Weiss spoke up.

"Well, we'll be there within 45 minutes. The Covenant shouldn't have found out where the cave is, but knowing them, I wouldn't go in with your guns on safety." The van moved swiftly and quietly over the Irish land. In daylight it was beautiful, mystical, and calming with its hilltops of misty green. At night it was mysterious, no longer relaxing, but more of an energized jumpiness. Almost as if waiting for the fairy's and leprechauns to play a prank; or for the Banshee to scream out her blood-thirsty warning.

It was easy to believe in such things in this country of fables and folk lore. It was almost easy to believe in beautiful nymphs and happy-endings. Maybe she would take a vacation here for a week or two. To relax…After finding out what happened to her for the past two years. After destroying who ever it was that destroyed her life, she would think about fairy-tales.

"Are you alright?" Vaughn's voice was soft, concern laced it. It made her heart hurt, and her stomach turn to knots.

"Just thinking." She forced a smile to her face, she could feel the corners tilting up but it still felt like a frown to her. It felt fake. She was going to be sick. Vaughn could see right through that smile.

"You sure?"

"Of course." She cleared her mind, focused on her training. The smile was believable this time. "I was just thinking that it's pretty here is all. Marshall was right." Vaughn still didn't look convinced, but he let it pass. They could feel the van slowing as it made its way to the point where they would start the climb down.

"Ready guys?" Weiss got out of the van and made his way to open the back. He pulled out the equipment, Vaughn helping. It was much easier to focus on what she was about to do, she was about to find a clue to her missing two years. She looked up at the sky, wondering for a moment what was beyond those bright lights. And how something so large could look so completely small from where she was looking at it, from where anyone was looking at it. Well, no, she knew that even the smallest things could be secretly larger than life. She worked with little things every day that ended up being priceless.

"Here's your mask." Weiss handed over the mask, it was more compact that most, and was clear for better vision. Vaughn had the scanner secured on his belt, and was slipping in his ear piece. Sydney closed her eyes, slipping in her ear piece while taking a deep breath. She needed to be determined, but her nerves were aggravating, and she had to focus on being calm.

'_Think of the stars. Think of finishing this, of finding out the truth. Just don't think about what you've lost. You still have more to gain. It's not over yet.'_ She ran the thoughts over her mind, taking those deep breaths, and keeping her eyes closed. She could still see those little bright lights in her mind's eye.

"Let's do this." She opened steady, cool, eyes that were hard as rock and just as determined as her father's. Vaughn nodded to Weiss; they had been waiting for her to come back. It had been as though she was an empty shell for days. The look in her eye's finally showed that it wasn't just Sydney's body working; her soul was finally in it.

They made their way to the edge of the cliff, tourist had already made their way back to their Bed and Breakfast's, and who would guard a cliff that only lead to sharp rocks, a crashing sea, and a breathtaking view? Well, anyone that would be guarding the cliffs had been lured away by a good drink or two at the nearby pub by a kind stranger with an American accent.

Vaughn went first. They started by putting a sturdy link at the top, Vaughn placed more for stability as he made his way slowly down. Pushing away with his feet then gliding until he hit the side again and placing another link before kicking off and doing it all over. Ten feet at a time. Sydney went when Vaughn made it down fifty feet, following the trail he had made with the climbing equipment.

"According to the tracking system Marshall set up on the scanner, the cave should be around here. Within ten feet, approximately." Vaughn called up to Sydney, the spot didn't look very different from the rest of the cliff.

"He said it was pretty well hidden." Syd called back down, keeping an eye out for anything different as she placed her feet carefully upon the rock surface.

"How are you guys doing?" Weiss's voice cracked through their ear pieces, jarring Sydney to the point where she grabbed at the first tangible thing she could hold onto; a bird's nest, and a rather large one at that. Her hand slipped off pulling the empty nest with it and knocking lose a branch that had been sticking out of the side, covered it silky moss. But, she didn't scream as she fell.

Vaughn grabbed Sydney's hand just as the safety cord snapped her back against the cliff. She wouldn't have fallen very far, thanks to the lines they had placed as they had made their way down, but it was always good to have that extra hand when you felt like you had left your gut twenty feet above your head. Sydney breathed in a huge sigh of relief, Vaughn closed his eye's tightly trying to calm his racing gut and the feeling of pure fear that had bile rising in his throat as Sydney had lost her footing.

"Whoa," Was all Sydney managed to get out as she tried to regain some footing on the side of the cliff next to Vaughn. "Thanks. We're okay Weiss."

Vaughn shook his head and grinned, three feet to his left was an opening that hadn't been there before Sydney's fall.

"This way." He nodded to the opening, and started scaling his way towards it. Sydney followed his lead.

Vaughn slid his hands around Sydney's waist as she neared the ledge to help her onto it; memories that had been fighter their way out of the box they had been so carefully hidden in, forced their way out. The ledge was small and forced their bodies to press close together as Sydney stepped on; she had to grip his shoulders to keep her balance.

She still smelled the same. That was the first thing Vaughn noticed as he embraced Sydney on the ledge in front of the cave 350 feet down from Weiss and the van. In Ireland. Well, maybe not the first thing he noticed. He had actually noticed that it felt good to hold her again. Then that she smelled the same. Like lilacs, and earth, and some rare spice.

"Vaughn." Her voice was going to crack. She didn't want to let go. She wanted to burrow into his arms and not let go of him again, not ever. Her chin was pressed into his neck, and his face was in her hair. He didn't want to move either, she could feel it. She had to let go, she had to pull away before she decided to do something else, anything else than let go. So that's what she did. She slowly pulled away, so as not to fall off the ledge again. He looked at her from behind lowered lashes, eyes so green she would forever associate them with this land of magick from now on. She didn't have to say anything else. He was married, and this wasn't a good idea- for either of them. He moved away, and cleared his throat before pulling out the scanner to check the footing in the inside of the cavern.

"This can't be right." He furrowed his eyebrows, rescanning the tiles.

"Why? What is it?" Sydney looked down at the hand device; a picture diagram of the tiles was on the screen. The red tiles were not to be stepped on, while the blue were safe. Sydney's eyes became wide, shocked.

"What's wrong?" Weiss's voice was worried over their ear pieces.

"All of the tiles are red," Vaughn looked up from the scanner, "Every one of them."

TBC


	2. Chapter Two

**_Alias:_** _To Kill A Mocking Bird_

**_Disclaimer_**: _I do not own, or claim to own, the show Alias, or any of its characters. Nor do I own the song "Wonder" By Megan McCauley, which can be found on the Elektra Soundtrack. Nor do I own the pieces from Alice in Wonderland, I mean honestly, if I owned any of the items listed, I would definitely be doing something else…and I would be old…_

**_Summery: _**Vaughn and Sydney have a mission, of course. Based in the third season, before you find out that Lauren is the mole. Syd, and Vaughn are sent after the "Mocking Bird" a device that holds significance to the Covenant, as well as the prophecy. Sydney is still trying to get used to not knowing everything that happened the past two years, and Vaughn's wife. The song "Wonder" reminds me of Sydney and Vaughn and it inspired this story.

**_Reviews:_** Thank you, Acetoorion, smilez4eva, and meg. And thank you to Fair Cate for the constructive criticism. Sorry I spelled Dixon incorrectly I've gone back and fixed it, though I still plan to use the imagery because there's not pictures on a TV screen to see some of the details with. Thank you also for the compliments. And thank you Natalie, I meant to go back and check the spelling before I posted, but I forgot 

**_Author's Note:_** Holly HT. Last night's episode. Oh my god. I can not live until it comes back on. What the hell is up with Vaughn? And then the car accident, and then click, off. And what the hell is up with VAUGHN! I don't even know if I can finish this knowing that he's not who I thought he was, he obviously really loves Sydney, but he's lied to her the entire time he's known her. And what does he mean "Depends who you ask?" Huh? What!

_**Last Time, On Alias: **_

"Vaughn and Sydney, you're to go on a mission to retrieve the Mocking Bird. It's a Rambaldi artifact that the Covenant is after, and the CIA wants it first. The Mocking Bird is said to be a voice recorder. We don't know whose voice, or what it says. Just that is has to do with the Prophecy and it could help with your memory Sydney, we don't know. Marshall." Dixon addressed Marshall for the rest of the mission's objectives.

"How are you guys doing?" Weiss's voice cracked through their ear pieces, jarring Sydney to the point where she grabbed at the first tangible thing she could hold onto; a bird's nest, and a rather large one at that. Her hand slipped off pulling the empty nest with it and knocking lose a branch that had been sticking out of the side, covered it silky moss. But, she didn't scream as she fell.

She still smelled the same. That was the first thing Vaughn noticed as he embraced Sydney on the ledge in front of the cave 350 feet down from Weiss and the van. In Ireland. Well, maybe not the first thing he noticed. He had actually noticed that it felt good to hold her again. Then that she smelled the same. Like lilacs, and earth, and some rare spice.

"This can't be right." He furrowed his eyebrows, rescanning the tiles.

"Why? What is it?" Sydney looked down at the hand device; a picture diagram of the tiles was on the screen. The red tiles were not to be stepped on, while the blue were safe. Sydney's eyes became wide, shocked.

"What's wrong?" Weiss's voice was worried over their ear pieces.

_"All of the tiles are red," Vaughn looked up from the scanner, "Every one of them."_

_**Chapter Two:**_

"I'm on it" Marshall was moving rapidly, faster than he had in…Well, since the last mission. Weiss had called on the cell phone, informing him that his scanner wasn't working correctly, because all of the tiles leading to the Mocking Bird were red. Marshall scowled at the computer screen in front of him, looking for disturbances in the system, or anything else that could be disfiguring the scanner's program. Then he sat back and blinked. "There's nothing wrong with the scanner. At all."

"What?" disbelieve coloured Weiss voice as he spoke into the cell phone.

"It's working correctly; all of the tiles are infected with some sort of trap. It's incredible. They must have put a huge amount of thought and time into the design. I mean, the lives that had to have been lost to create something so complex."  
"Marshall, that's great. We need to get past it." Weiss interrupted with impatience.

"You're going to have to find a way to get past all the tiles without touching any of them. I don't know what will happen if they're set off, there's no way to tell. I would come up with something but you're there and I'm-" Marshall heard the resounding click as Weiss hung up the phone.

"Alright, here's the problem. We don't know what's going to happen if you touch any of those tiles. There should be a way to get pass all of them without touching though. There's always something." Vaughn and Sydney listened carefully to Weiss's voice over their ear pieces. "Personally, I'm fresh out of ideas, and Marshall didn't have any either."

"I have one." Sydney spoke up, looking up at the rocks that made the cave entrance and the ones that were fifty feet back marking the end of the cave. "I'm going to need my bag. It's under the passenger's seat in the van." Sydney spoke quickly, setting down her mask on the floor of the cave, handing her flashlight to Vaughn.

_"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."_

_"How do you know I'm mad?" Said Alice._

_"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."  
Alice didn't think that proved it at all: however, she went on: "And how do you know you're mad?" _

_"To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?"_

_"I suppose so," said Alice. _

"_Well, then," the Cat went on, "you see a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad,"_

She didn't know why she had specifically thought of that conversation in Alice in Wonderland. It had just came to her, after she had planned what she would do, how she would do it, and put it into action. The 'mad' conversation had popped into her head after years of not having read the story.

Vaughn passed her the bag she had asked for. She knew exactly what she had packed in the bag. An extra disguise if the need arose, a lock picking set, and everything else she would need to make her way to the other side of the cave. Sydney pulled out the rather large black gun, pointed it at the far wall, and pulled the trigger.

It was loud, extremely loud in the quiet darkness, as the thick black cord shot through the guns muzzle and sent it's strong metal tip plowing into the rock. Now all she had to do was set up the guns holder in the rocks above her head. It would hold the cord high enough of the ground for its purpose.

Vaughn had caught on, of course, to what she had in mind. He had a scowl on his face as he helped her drill in the last screw to hold to gun tightly in place.

"I'll go over." It wasn't an offer, but she took it as one, and continued to replace her gloves that she had removed. "Sydney," he paused and switched off his ear piece, gave her time to follow his example. They had done this once before. Switched off their ear piece, and had gotten in trouble for it. But there was no more SD-6, and no one but the CIA knew they were here. "Sydney, I'll go over. We don't know what will happen if you hit one of those tiles. I'm not going to lose you again to a device we don't even know is worth it." He had his hand holding her forearm. Something she noticed, something that felt as though he had reached inside her and had grabbed her heart and squeezed. She pulled away.

"You don't have me any more to lose Vaughn." She needed to sound harsh, to sound sure. She couldn't, she wouldn't, tell him every thing she wanted to tell him, how much she still loved him and how she never wanted for him to let go. But he had let go, and he had married Lauren, and she had to accept that and move on. She had to put a sense of distance between Vaughn and herself. He had his eyes closed.

"I want you as a friend Sydney. I want you to be able to trust me, I want to be able to pass you in the office and not worry about what Lauren is thinking, or if I'm not making it to your standards. I can't go back to who I was then, I had to change, and I had to move on. I've told you this; I've told you my reasons. But I've known what it was like to lose you, to let your ashes leave my hands and watch them wash away. You do not know what I had to go through, you weren't there, and I can not, go through that again." His voice was soft, and laced with just a little of the anger he felt, just a little of the sadness.

"I _need_ this." Her eyes were pleading. He didn't say anything, just gave a nod of acceptance. Sydney started clipping herself to the wire. Vaughn placed his hand on her arm;

"Syd, be careful." His voice was quiet, serious. She nodded, turned her ear piece back on, and pulled herself up on the wire, her legs wrapped around it and her hands pulling her body across. Vaughn turned his ear piece on as well.

"Sydney's making her way over to the Mocking Bird." Vaughn pressed his finger to his ear piece, speaking the Weiss.

"She's seriously amazing." Weiss shook his head, despite the fact that Vaughn couldn't see it. "Alright, you've nine minutes and forty-seven seconds."

Sydney's arms hadn't started aching just yet, but she knew that the return trip would have then shaking with tension. She was taking deep breaths as she moved one hand in front of the other, pulled, then placed her other hand up and repeated the practice.

"Eight minutes." Vaughn called out, checking his watch. The fact that they couldn't just walk over and take the piece would pull at their time allotment, Sydney knew this.

"_If you time as well as I do," said the Hatter, "you wouldn't talk about wasting _it_. It's _him."

"_I don't know what you mean," said Alice._

"_Of course you don't!" the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. "I dare say you never even spoke to Time!"_

"_Perhaps not," Alice cautiously replied; "but I know I have to beat time when I learn music."_

"_Ah! That accounts for it," said the Hatter. "He won't stand beating. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he's do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!"_

She knew, of course, what had brought on this memory of her favorite story: her constant need to play with time. Before she met Vaughn she wanted to go back in time to Danny, not tell him about her involvement in SD-6. After that, there were many occasions she had wanted to make different choices, to change different mistakes. The second switch in the bomb that had killed the CIA agents she had met just ten minutes before hand. She wanted to go back in time, to before she had lost two years of her life, to tell Vaughn that she loved him, to never give up on her. She had to beat time, all the time…And now she couldn't just whisper to him and ask for a few moments more…A few less. Sydney snapped back to where she was, right above the Mocking Bird, and not in Wonderland.

Pulling her legs tighter around the wire, she dropped her arms and upper body and pulled the flashlight from her mouth (where she had clamped her teeth around it).

Within arms reach was a box, made of stone, and carved with intricate designs of a tree with flowing branches, and in the middle of the tree was a carved bird. The bird was small, real looking, with its head facing the top of the tree where you would imagine sunlight would be filtering through, and its beak open in song.

"I've got it." Sydney said out-loud, to herself, and to her partners over her mic.

"You have four minutes Sydney, quick but be careful." Vaughn's voice filtered over the ear piece. Sydney placed the box in the bag and pulled it closed and tight, before pulling it over her shoulders and tightening the straps; a hard feat to accomplish while hanging upside down. Leg strength would be her main way of pulling her self back, while pushing on the wire with her arms. "Two minutes and twenty-seven seconds." Vaughn counted down, watching his watch, worried about Sydney making it over in time. "Two minutes."

"Almost there." Sydney whispered; she could see Vaughn's outline, and the star speckled night behind him.

"Vaughn, Sydney, we've got company." Weiss's voice called urgently through. "I think it's Covenant," Weiss paused, and they heard the click as he placed his ear piece down.

"Weiss?" Vaughn pressed his finger to his ear piece once again; "Weiss?" his voice was louder as he called over the microphone. "Sydney, we have fifteen seconds!"

"Agent Vaughn, Agent Bristow." A smooth English voice sounded over Weiss microphone and into the pieces in Vaughn and Sydney's ears. "I imagine, since you arrived here such a long time ahead of us, you've already accomplished quite a bit of the work. Knowing Ms. Bistro, I have also come to conclusion that you have acquired the Mocking Bird. We want it, so I've taken the liberty of borrowing your friend here. You can have him back, alive and mostly unharmed, if you're willing to give us the device in return. We've left a note for you."

"Sark!" Vaughn yelled into his microphone. Sydney pulled herself down from the wire, landing on the safe zone in front of the tiles, next to Vaughn, with only two seconds to spare.

"Sark, you son of a bitch! If he gets hurt I swear-" Sydney screamed.

"Such language, Ms. Bistro, you should learn to control your anger. Take care." Another click was heard as the piece was placed back down.

"Were out of time." Vaughn looked up, the gas was making it's way out of the top of the cave. Behind them a rock like door was slowing closing. They had less than thirty seconds to get out of the cave.

"Vaughn," Sydney pulled at the clamps that still connected her to the wire with panic, "they won't come lose. I'm stuck."

TBC


End file.
